Church planting in a post-Christian U.S.

I came across an interesting video that was put together and posted by Drew Goodmanson from Kaleo church in San Diego. The video is brief, I think it’s around four minutes long, but Drew is able to present a lot of information from a variety of sources such as Planting Missional Churches, Christianity Today, Barna, stuff from Tim Keller and other books. It is a powerful call to the church to support church planting. If you are interested in the statistics, they are all located at Church Planting Resources: (The State of the Church in the U.S.)

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4 Responses to “Church planting in a post-Christian U.S.”

Hey Larry, I don’t have time to watch the video right now, but I had a question for you. Do you think that there is any way in which we have this church planting thing upside-down? I’m all for planning and that kind of thing, being wise and trying to know as much as possible about the place where the plant will be, but perhaps we ought to just go, live life honestly be for Jesus and our neighbors, and allow Holy Spirit to work? Maybe it’s because we like to see fast results? Because church planters, for good and bad reasons, don’t want to be bivocational many times? I don’t know, I’m just rambling at 7:30am before work…

Interesting thoughts @NathanaelThink you’re right, no prceeft model multi-site, now there’s a whole other question of ecclesiology!@TraceyThanks for some thoughts from across the pond. I’d heard of the 150 theory, experientially it sounds fairly accurate too. Definitely getting people involved needs to be a priority of church, no matter what size it is.@JohnI hear ya, but how does one gain an audience for the gospel attractional church gains an audience for the gospel by providing an event, a service, the kind of opportunity which would take years to build up purely through personal contact. Of course the message heard is endorsed and confirmed through the gospel community that is Christians living out their faith in their spheres of influence home, work, sport team etc.I don’t really get it, you seem to be talking about a different way of doing church, but what I’m hearing is more like attractional church on Sunday + Mission focused home groups, which I don’t see as any different from the traditional model (at least in ideal, maybe not in reality) How does it differ?P.S. church = assembly therefore at’ or in’ would be appropriate words to use@LauraWe look forward to your rant.

Hey Graham – I think about when Jesus told the Pharisees who were tithing but not committed to mercy, “these things ought you to have done and not have neglected the others.” He was saying sometimes it is not “either or” , but “both and”. In relationship to church planting I think we should see that it is needed and biblical however not everyone is called to do it. I do think we should all should work to support it. And when it is done it should be done in many different ways; sometimes organically arising out of people just living out the Christian life and sometimes as part of a strategic plan that receives significant thinking and financial support. Both of those approaches can be led by the Spirit don’t you think?

In our church situation if we continue to reach people for Christ and the church grows, which it has been doing, we have to make some decision on how to go forward. Do we end up with five services each weekend to fit people in, do we put up a “no vacancy” sign, build a megabuilding or try to intentionally plant other churches that will reproduce healthy communities of Christians. We’ve chosen church-planting and believe that it is both, wise, Scriptural and the way the Spirit of God has led us as a church. When you come home and have a nap feel free to drop another comment on us! When you can, try to watch the video also. Peace

Wow, the statistics in this video are staggering, scary, thought provoking and ominous. I think often we are so living in the past here in America where we are still believing that America is a Christian Nation. It never was a Christian nation, for there is only a Spiritual Christian Nation. Even though America was built on Christian values, with many Christians founding it. I think often we think that we must go to the un-reached People groups to do evangelism (which is good) and anything less is selling out, as a pastor. However we must be true to God’s calling wherever it might be, weather that is N. America or abroad. We need to wake up and realize that we are living in the mission field right here in America. I feel like we are living this lie that everything is great and that pretty much every one around us is a “Christian” so we only need to spread the Gospel in other places other than N. America. I think it is interesting that church planting has been the most successful means of winning converts. So I believe that church planting should be utilized and that we need to stop stealing people from other churches.

Larry Kirk

Larry is the senior pastor at Christ Community Church in Daytona Beach Florida and a resident adjunct professor of practical theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando. Larry is committed to Reformed Theology that is Christ-centered, culturally relevant, biblical and missional. He's the husband of Connie and father of three sons; Alex, Adam and Aaron.